Limbaugh continues to disgust any "real" American

As a Catholic I am disgusted that Limbaugh, a man who does not practice any religion that I know of, can say that as a liberal I hate the God of Christianity. The judgement that he, and those people like him, passes on others will be the judgement that awaits him. In the Lords prayer we ask God to forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive others. That means that we ask Him to measure us the way we measure others. I wonder if Rush ever said that prayer? And if he knows what he is asking God to do? By saying what he said he will be condemed to everlasting fire. Rush please, to save your soul, reform your life and return to God. I say to my fellow Christians, do not seek power on this earth. You seek an illusion offered you by Satan. Seek to be a citizen of Gods city not the corrupted city of the earth. You cannot be a citizen of both. If you seek power here then you will have your reward here, but not in the here after. For many or wish to be first on earth shall be last in heaven. Reform your lives and return to God. Here the plight of the widow and orphan. Feed the hungry, cloth the naked, comfort the sick, and forget not those in prison. Strive for peace so you shall be called children of God, put down the sword so you will not be struck down by it. Give what you have to the poor and follow Him. And remember that how you treat others will be how God treats you. Reform your lives and return to God.

Because TG was a patrol ship

25th anniversary of the Price of Friendship is coming up!
I mentioned the plot in an earlier post. Hatch Laringa and John Reign are minding their own business doing "busy work" on their beat up piece of crap spaceship, the Renegade. Yuzzem, an old friend, a green skinned, bald headed terrorit, spaceship designer, a veritable renaisance alien, sells the duo on remodeling their spaceship. In return they agree to tow a gigantic refinery (Alien rip-off) to the TG-2000 space station, an even more bigger-er gigantic-er space station.
This film was made in the aftermath of Alien and Empire Strikes Back, ergo the refinery and the astroid belt.

After a percieved passing of time the duo comeback to their ship as little clay people waddling across a set to a balsa wood ship. Then they are human again and in a two room set of the interior of the ship. They thank Yuzzem, "Yuzzem you've done a magnificent job." says John. "Thank you." says Yuzzem.

From there things go down hill. They hook up with the Adon; pronounced add-on. Yuzzem, who has come along, trys to alay fears. Somehow by doing this he sows suspision with Hatch and John. Then they decide to call Cimtar, sort of a claymation Yoda on a disco light box. The little clay dude is about to tell them what Yuzzem is really going to do when he vanishes in a flickering, filmscratchy poof!

Yuzzem, about 2.5 feet away in the next room, has sabotaged the Cimtar machine, or whatever it's called. Hatch and John become really very concerned about this. They are so concerned that right when they are about to ask him about the problem with the Cimtar machine he informs them that they are entering an asteroid belt.

"What!? What are the coordinates?" Asks a bewildered Hatch.
"Uh 1.8 S" responds the suddenly sissyfied court dandy that is Yuzzem.

The astroid collision scene (ESB rip-off) was filmed upside down so the strings are coming off the bottom of the astroids; and your not looking for strings there are you! One of the pumice balls hits a legs-egg dome on the Adon and there is a flash-cube explosion. Oddly enough the first film in this miserable series had the Renegade hit an even bigger asteroid.

Anyhow Yuzzem has stowed his secret weapon onboard the ship to be released at the perfect time. This is the villain Pausba. Pausba and Yuzzem totally fail to coordinate the takeover of the ship and Yuzzem in typical FUBAR fashion accidently shoots Pausba. The film does not say what kind of weapon it was but Pausba speews blood all over the wall as he dies a bloody death. The duo come to the comotion. They somehow have guns, flare guns, and start shooting at Yuzzem. Finally, after ten minutes of film, there is some action. Yuzzem shoots his way off camera and into an escape capsule.

The last bit of film is the duo trying to reason with the now totally eviiiil Yuzzem, who's head piece is just about spent so he has to have his neck wrapped like a guy trying to sue somebody for wiplash. He escapes just as the Renegade and its cargo are headed for TG-2000.

Hatch determines that they will have to "rip-her off" of the Adon and that is what they do. The too escape, letting the Adon slam into the space station killing everyone on the huge thing. They soon fix the Cimtarator and talk to their old clay faced pal. He informs them that Yuzzem was captured "now he's in prison, because TG was a patrol ship" This sounds kinda like "how are we going to have a PC ending where the bad guy is caught?" The conclusion to this film is a bunch if type written end credits that scroll to the end of Pictures at an Exhibition.

So I am trying to track this film down. I have no clue where it is..............

Educating the President

The President is either unifrormed about Social Security or simply lying in order to sway an ignorant segment of America. He says that Social Security is unfair because if a person dies they get a death benefit but have no ability to cash out their account. To educate him and others this is how the system works.

The money I pay into the current system pays the checks for Americans who draw from the system NOW. The money I will be getting will be being paid into the system by my kids. The Social Security System forces our nation to care about the wages of future generations. Shipping all the manufacturing over to the communists (Wal Mart Style) is not going to help me out any.

By diverting money out of the system into private accounts the current retirement community will be hurt, or we will have to borrow and bunch more money from the communists in China. (Isn't it ironic that the US's bank is the Communist bank of China?) The Bush administration has single handedly allowed China to have a direct and determining factor in how our nation works.

Bush can make all sorts of claims. But as a thinking citizen, when I hear Bush talk about how he "knows" there is a problem or is "certain" there is a problem. I grab my wallet and and prepare for the coffins to start rolling off the C141's

Theology

My dear freinds who follow Dr Dobbson. Reform you lives and return to God. For you have fallen away. The God that made the universe, that redeems souls, who is all powerful, and all meciful, and ever living, does not need Man to protect Him or His Sacrements. Dr. Dobbson has stated that the Sacrement of marriage would be destroyed if gay people were to marry.
I argue that the Sacrement of marriage is set down by God's will and thus cannot be destroyed by Man. According to Roman Catholic canon law it is one of the seven sacrements set down by devine evangelical law. If the holy Sacrement cannot be destroyed then what is being destroyed when two gay people marry? Only Dobbson's faith in God. And if his faith is weak enough to be destroyed by two gay people marrying then he has no faith worthy of the name. Again I say reform your lives and return to God.
If God creates a man or woman as a homosexual, why would God then command them to live in discordance with how He made them? To force a gay person to live a straight life is in countervention of the devine will of God and therefore a sin. The Catholic Church admits, under current Canon Law, that some human beings are infact created this way.
I know of no gay person that decided to be gay. I am a straight man and I remember no time in my past where I "decided" to be straight. My father never told me that I had to be attacked to girls. From the time I was 6 years old I found the opposite sex interesting. By the time I was 10 I was trying to pull the bathing suit off the gil next door and clandestinely viewing my Dad's playboys. All while living in a family where personal affection was not openly expressed. I was clearly born straight.
Gay people I know, knew that they were gay when there were kids. However they attempted to live in discordance of how they were made because the society they lived in, and still live in, says that they are "confused" or "evil".
I would say that one should always strive to live in accordance with God. Walking with Him humbly, and accepting the life He gives you. Perhaps Dr. Dobbson had to choose to live a straight life? If so then I am sure his adolensence must have been quite confusing and alarming.
As for marriage. God's sacrement confers His grace upon the people being married. All love is provided directly from God. If two gay people love each other, and share his love, believe in Christ Jesus, and are willing to proclaim that love to Him that gave the love, then I see no reason that He would not confer upon them His everlasting grace.
Furthermore if the men an women who were married, are now forced apart by the government for no other reason than that they are gay, the sin is on the heads of the government. For what God has joined let no man seperate.
The middle ages were a time of superstition and ignorance. God granted us minds to understand the universe we live in and allowed us to leave that horrible age. I see no reason why we should wish to turn our backs on Him, refute the intellect He gave us, and practice superstition and bigotry in this age.

A follow up to Yesterday

Whenever things go really bad in Iraq, like the last couple of weeks, the Petagon trotts out General Meyers to tell us how we "almost" did this and "just about" did that, and "virtually" did the other thing.
Today was no different. The general today said that we "almost" got Zarqaui. Another "almost" triumph! Just like we "nearly" getting Bin Laden in Tora Bora. Or "just about" foiling the 9/11 attacks. Or nearly fighting the dragon of Angor, or almost defeating the vicious chicken of Bristol. -sorry I thought I was in a Monty Python movie for a moment-

If so many people were not living lives in utter misery, horror, (other nasty words) it would be funny. I am sure that in time there will be a boat load of laughs to be had over this era in human life.

What the hell are we doing?

The current situation in Iraq looks to the uninformed eye to be back sliding into further disaster. Apperances can often be misleading. However in this case even the uninformed eye is correct. I want to ask the American people how many more soldiers have to get blown up, and how much more money are we supposed to spend on that dung hill before we decide to come home? The Bush administration has said today that Iraq should work harder at forming a government. The response by the Iraqi UN ambassador was basically "mind your own business."
So what is the situation? We do not seem to be able to crush the insurgency. We cannot keep the streets safe for Iraqi's. The Iraqi government, such as it is, is powerless. The Iraqi army is being commanded by???? The infrastructure of the country is being rebuilt only to collapse again due to lack of maintenance or sabotage.
In case you have forgotten my question here it is again. How many more Americans have to get killed in Iraq? How much more of our money do we have to spend there? And another Q we need to ask it how is the operations in Iraq making America safer? Porter Goss does not think it is making the world safer. The State Department does not think it is making the world safer.
Maybe we are making the mideast safer by showing the other tyrants that we mean business. it wouild be great if the petty tyrants in the mideast were our enemies, but they are not our enemy. The biggest tyrant of all is the king of Saudi Arabia and he is best freiinds with Bush. Osama Bin Laden and his kind, is our enemy. What have we shown him? That we can be checkmated by using very inexpensive systems of resistance. But that is being too defeatist, not gung-ho, not home-alive-in-45 enough. So lets go back to the other idea of us making the mideast safer by showing the tyrants we mean business. So Syria pulls out of Lebanon and we say "hurray!", but again Syria is not our enemy. Syria may pay protection money to Hesbullah and Islamic Jihad, but only in the context of keeping its petty dictator in power. The little men of the mideast have not worldwide ambitions. They are constantly having to keep themselves from getting knocked off.
Osama Bin Laden doesn't like the kings and dictators in the mideast anymore than we do. We can actually agree with him on that count. He sees the dictatorships as all a part of some grand American design to destroy Islam. Sort of like Dr Dobbson sees gays having a grand design to destroy Christendom. Niether Dobbson or Bin Laden can be reasoned with. Their lack of faith in their own religion, and their use of fear and hatred to achieve their ends makes them irrational.
We are in a global war with an enemy that has an irrational view of the world. They have a rational view of power, and how to apply what power they have to kill, but that is about it. Meanwhile our leaders seem irrational in their blind adherence to a policy that shows no signs of winning this war.

A Question for you

Would you worship God if there was no hope of salvation?
Would you still go to church? Read the bible? I say that many people love the concept of heaven, or eternal life, but few love God. We see God as a means to an end, not the end in of itself. He is a facilitator in the consumation of our desires for more stuff, life included. His presences is desired on death beds, but seldom desired in the marriage bed.
We have developed elaborate rituals to ask His forgiveness, but the reasons behind us asking are ripe with suspicion. To ask for forgivness so you can partake in the sacrement of holy communion, is not the right reason. Our relationship with God cannot be a giant game of Redlight-Greenlight.
We are used to asking so we can recieve. But we fail to understand what to ask for. Few ask "How can I be of service today?" We all just want more life for us and our relations. We want to be taken care of and cannot accept that in order for that to happen we have to take care of our fellow man. It is not a quid pro quo either. God may not give you more life, a happier life, if you serve others. The door that opens before you may be the door to a gass chamber as surely as it may be the door to a mansion.
So I conclude by asking the same question. Would you worship God if there was not hope of salvation? And before you answer do not predicate it by saying that there is always faith or hope. Because there again you are trying to use hope or faith for salvation. I guess another way to put the question is what do you love? God or salvation? And if you say that you love God and have faith that because of that love you will acheive salvation then I put it to you that you do not love God but salvation, for where your treasure resides so resides your hart.

BENEDICTVM XVI PONTIFEX MAXIMVS

I think of myself as a progressive person, open minded, believing in science, evolution, global warming, etc. Yet I am really annoyed by people dumping on the new pope as if he was the worst of all choices.
1: He was a hitler youth? All young boys and girls were automatically in that dubious organisation during WWII. It was mandatory.

2: He was a German soldier? True. When he was 16, Ratzinger was drafted into the German army. He deserted Hitlder's army in 1945 shortly before the end of the war. Desertion in time of war, in even the US army, was an offense that carried the death penalty.

3: He's an arch conservative right? Actually his career has been pretty moderate (for the Catholic Church). Benedict, like JP2, is not following the moral and ethical relativism of American conservatism. According to this Pope, premptive war is a sin, as is any form of capital punishment, unchecked capitalism, social injustice. He, like JP2, was an advisor at the 2nd Vatican Council and still defends its conclusions including Nostra Aetate, the document on respect of other religions and the declaration of the right to religious freedom.

4: But he wrote Dominus Jesu, where he says that those outside the Christian faith cannot attain salvation? This may come as a surprise but followers of Jesus Christ like to quote the man. He himself said, "I am the way and the life. He that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." and "No one comes to the Father accept through me." So from a Christian standpoint, and particularly a Catholic standpoint, the Pope isn't saying anything that should be too shocking.

Lastly Benedict is not JP2. He is not going to be a globe trotter. One Vatican official said it best, "We have to recover from a hurricane" refering to the affter effects of John Paul II's pontificate. Benedict is there to put the house in order and whatever else God wills.

The Price of Friendship and Osama Bin Laden

In 1981 we made the movie The Price of Friendship. In this movie a terrorist dupes two men into navigating a cargo ship to a space station then, at a pre-determined point, the terrorist hijacks the ship to crash it into the space station causing mass casulties. Basically turning a ship into a weapon of mass destruction. This is infact what happens, the two men escapce, their cargo ship destroys the space station and the terrorist escapes never to be heard from again.

April Poll Crunch

Things are not looking good for the President. Current poll crunch gives him an approval rating of 46.6% Gallup has Mr. Bush at 45%. This gives the President the dubious honor of having the lowest approval rating of any president in the last 75 years.

The negative numbers are also begining to hurt him on the Hill. Republicans, normally solidly behind the President, are showing signs of disunity and distance, particularly concerning the Bolton nomination for the UN.

The Republicans are also begining to find out that you cannot really claim to be the underdog when you run the Hill and the White House. While Democrats are finding their footing as a minority party and are behaving like pit bulls.

2nd terms are always a bitch.

No More Terrorism! Hurray!

In a bold move that shows the high level of logic and brain power of the occupents of the White House, the State Department has decided not to issue any more yearly reports on the status of global terrorism.
If we don't report on it, it must not have happened. Right? The White House said that recent terrorism reports, showing increasing terrorism world wide, are viewed as "not reliable".
This is another example of the typical Republican philosophy of either ignoring facts that do not match their viewpoint, or simply not asking for the facts at all. Clearly the White House is upset that their own State Department says that their war on terror is not going well.
The key to all Republican decisions is to let the American people know as little as possible about reality so they can lie to them. It is soooooo simple.
What is next? Stopping CNN from showing the Dow Jones Industrial average numbers? Can't have Americans thinking that stock investments might ruin their retirement.
The Republicans are continuing to offer us a large bucket of cement to put our head in. "If you only put your head in here, all your problems will go away. We will take care of you."
I find it more than a little ironic that the Republican dominated government sees all of us as Terri Shaivo. We are all brain dead, incapable of doing anything for ourselves, and needing Tom Delay et al, to help us spend our money, blood, and lives. And when we dare to try and think for ourselves we are class warriors, or unpatriotic, or even dare I say political.
There is nothing that will make a Republican more cranky than an American citizen not believing in their bullshit. George Bush is a lowsy President, we are not winning any war on terrorism, they don't even know what the hell the war is all about, they are lousy bankers, worthless budget makers, horrible generals, and couldn't make a real deal to save their lives. It is not conservativism that I oppose as much as mind boggling stupidity wrapped in the flag and brandishing a gun.
Republicans suck because they are incompitent.

Nazism Alive and Well on The Weiner Nation!

On Nov. 13, during one of many furious tirades that month about the Southern Poverty Law Center, Savage responded to a caller who seemed to agree with him about the case, but who questioned what appeared to be Savage's Jew-baiting.

And t hen we have Michael Weiner (Savage) He likes to call Liberals Nazi's but listen to this:
"What do you mean I am trying to stir it up?" Savage demanded. "A guy like Cohen, who is obviously a Jew from New York, is going after a decent Christian man. What am I supposed to do? Sit here and take crap from him? I think he is a vile human being who ought to be arrested for a hate crime.

"And I am not going to mince words. And I guarantee you that he says 'goy' behind the scenes." ("Goy" is a Hebrew word for a non-Jew that, depending on its usage, can be derogatory. Savage also uses the plural "goyim.")

At one point in the exchange, Savage seemed ready to advocate violence against Jews. But he stopped short of spelling it out.

"I'll tell you the truth, it's enough to break your heart to see what this country has become," he said. "And I have a lot of things that I really want to say today, that I'm going to have to control myself and not say, because there are things that need to be done that I can't say. But the country's at a terrible, terrible balancing point."

Savage's self-control didn't last long. Later in the same broadcast he mocked Jews in a fake Brooklyn accent and laid out a justification for anti-Semitism.

"That's next isn't it?" Savage asked. "From these verminous Brooklyn College lawyers, isn't it? Go down South and have a tee-hee over the goyim. Laugh at the goyim. Go down there and take away the crosses and they can't touch you, huh Mr. Cohen? [Mock laughter.]

"Mr. Cohen, and you wonder where anti-Semitism comes from. Let me strip the mask off it for you today, because if you think I'm going to mince words you are mistaken. It comes from situations like this, when you have a New York Jew like Cohen going down South into the heartland of Christianity and stealing the religious symbol from Christians."


A note from the blogger (me): As a Christian I wish to say that Michael Savage (Weiner) does not speak for either me or my God. Like all good nazi's he is using other peoples faith as a toothingstone for his own bigotry and hatred. He obviously has not faith in God, or anything else for that matter. Only those who walk in darkness on the wide road to hell can spew such nonsense.

Another Cheer for Democracy in action!

Tom Delay, that pillar of moral might, lobbyed to keep US laws from applying to the US controled Marianas Islands, where thousands of people work in sweatshops to make our shoes and where women are sold into slavery in brothels. He took his birbes in the form of free trips to the islands, as the guest of the sweatshop owners. God bless America! That big fat land, full of big fat people, with big fat mouths saying absolutely nothing. The land of sham, where everyones soul is for sale. Who's righteous rage and moral pretense stand like two ten thousand foot high granite blinders to its own hypocracy. Cheeseburger central where even a pauper can die of corinary artery disease. Does anything remain of the sons of liberty? Is all that is left of our soul, some cold statutes and dusty parchment? "Fire Sale! Freedom 1/2 off! Get it while it lasts 'cause when its gone its gone!"

A different perspective

The Churches perspective of the world is vastly different than our own nation. It can speak of how it dealt with the Emperors of Rome. It watched the Huns ravage Europe and then recede back to Asia. It's perspective on Islam is as an institution that was already 600 years old when Mohammed walked the earth as a child. From it's point of view Western Civilization is not a class to take, but what it forged with the Bible and a sword. It held Europe as a state and viewed kings as vassels. And it gave birth to the University system of higher education.
In 1945 Stalin was asked what he thought the role of the Pope would be after WWII. Stalin said mockingly, "The Pope? How many divisions does he have?" Yet the Church helped destroy Stalin's conquests without lifting a single gun. So when we get frusterated at the Church as an institution that is inflexable and dogmatic, we need to remember that it is the ultinmate survivalist. Empires have come and gone, whole cultures have been born, lived, and died, while the Church went merrily onward.
I am not trying to paint a utopian picture of the Church. It has been responsible for all sorts of not-at-all nice things. And it has splintered, and cracked, and convulsed throught the millenia. It will probably continue to do so on into the future; like a dividing cell, growing the organism by replication and evolutionary variation.
I have all sorts of advice for a new Pope. Let the clergy marry, birth control is a good thing for the third world (don't worry there'll still be loads of Catholics). Counter Evangelical Protestantism by combining the antiquity of the Mass in all its incence, and chanting, with modernity of music and speach. Use the Cathedral as a guide. Remember it was the first multimedia religious extravaganza. There was nothing else like them anywhere in the world.
But of course the Church will do what it is going to do. To us its actions may seem foolhardy. Like when the decided to send monks into lands ruled by bloodthirsty pegan warriors. Or even before that when, after having their Savior executed by Rome, deciding to go to Rome itself to preach. Or even before that when James and John gave up a perfectly good fishing careers to follow a homeless man. Some how I have faith that the Church will survive.

Review of Dark Star

"And I used to think you were cute." This pretty much sums up Dark Star. A movie who's VHS tape sleeve graphics far outshin the actual art direction. Okay enough nay-saying. This film is still pretty funny and has really held up well for a 1974 sci-fi film. It has held up well mainly due to the fact that it must have looked crude even back then. Blue screen? We don't need no stinken blue screen. It's visual effects are only slightly better than The Price Of Friendship and to be frank, not that my name is frank, TPOF's effects were better. The asteroids in TPOF kicked ass compared to Dark Star.
What Dark Star has is campy-fun and a total lack of pretense. It is a more honest film than Phantom Menace.

It was shown in an age before Star Wars, Alien, and all the rest. It sort of falls into that bizzare era betweeen 2001 and Star Wars. Fitting in well with Silent Running and Dr. Who. I am surprised that no body has wanted to do a remake of this film. Yikes!

Review of Popes funeral coverage

I channel surfed a bit in the lead up to the funeral mass. CNN requires that horrible data line at the bottom of the screen giving us all sorts of crud we don't need to read so I opeted for NBC. At least those guys left a full screen and kept the talking to a minimum. For a Catholic the mass, whether in latin, or English or Italian, is understandable. NBC had their clergy-pundit do the translation of the latin bits. I had the KJB open and followed along. Then a couple of things went sideways.
First of all when the psalmist began singing the latin version of Psalm 23, pretty much mandatory in a funeral service, the NBC pundit and the super script that flashed on the screen said it was psalm 22. Brian Williams picked up on the legendary psalm 22 as did the female counterpart. The 23rd psalm is the most famous and oft quoted psalm. "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, thou art with me...etc" Psalm 22 starts out "My God My God, why have you forsaken me ...etc."
The punditry kept quiet until near the end when the crowd was chanting alernately "Magnus! Magnus!" and "Santo! Santo!" letting the Cardinals know that John Paul sould be known as John Paul the Great and that he should be canonized. I have no doubt that both will be done in good time.
The Papel "historian" on the NBC punditry staff then said that this had not occured in recorded Church history since the funeral of Pope Gregory the Great in the 8th century. Well I will admit that I can't recall a papel funeral where the Pontiff was lionized so. Though that is probably because I have only seen three papel funerals out of 264 Popes. The pundit was of course wrong about the date of Gregory's funeral. He truely would have been one amazing pope to have been born in AD540 and lived until the 700's. The truth is that Gregory died in AD 604 in the 7th Century. I know this is papel hair splitting but I find that the pundits usually spew errors like this. The key is to not know anything about what they are talking about, then they sound smart.
Overall I think the news people were at a real loss for accurate words. One glaring omission on behalf of NBC was the lack of words regarding the heads of state. Now you can say that God is dead, and that John Paul was just a Jesus freak. But sitting together at that funeral were the leaders from the US, Iran, and Syria. The funeral of John Paul brought enemies together for 3 hours in one place. Looking at all the Jews, Muslims, Eastern Orthodox, Budhist monks, Sieks, and Hindus in attendance one can begin to appreciate what the Hand of God can do when He is so moved. Yet this event was ignored.
Not to beat up on NBC too much though because the real losers were the heads of state that missed a giant, historic, and literally God given opportunity to advance peace.
"May the peace of the Lord be with you all. Let us offer each other the sign of peace." Ratzigner spoke. And as millions in attendance, in Rome and around the world, my Mom and I included, embraced and said "Peace be with you." The leaders of the Earth stood still, or offered their allies a handshake.
How the world might have changed if President Bush had bothered to walked ten steps and offer his hand to the President of Iran or vice versa. But none took up John Paul's staff. If they had only taken to hart what John Paul II said when he first spoke as Pope in 1978. The words were not his but Christs, "Be not affraid."

Magnus Magnus, Santo, Santo! Santo Giovanni Paulo!

Ray

I am not sure why this movie was so good. But it was really good. It is a pretty simple story that plods along in pretty much chronological order and ends happily. There is a lot of predictable, and very well known, things that happen to Ray Charles. He lets success get to him. He is a womanizer. He abuses too much heroine. What saves this movie is the performances by Jamie Fox, Kerry Washington, and Clifton Powell. The performances of this film take an ordinary film and make it extrordinary.

It gets a 8

Human Parots

We have a heck of a time discovering the true nature of ourselves since we are so close to the subject. An objective view of ourselves by us is pretty much impossible. I think we are closer to parots than we might think. If a parot hears the same word enough, and is rewarded upon hearing the word, it can learn to say the word.

Brak!...Conservative Good Liberal Bad...Brak!

We practice a dehumanising culture of name calling, fear mongering, and scapgoating on many sides of the political spectrum. Examples of this are: Democrats do not love America. Republicans want a dictatorship. Christians want to cram God down our throats. Atheists want to ban God from everything. Liberals are amoral hedonists. Conservatives are backward thinking reactionaries. etc.

There was a time when even though people had differing views of politics etc, they had a presupposition that their foes were good people who loved their neighbor and were worthy of respect.
With the continued dehumanising culture of name calling, threats, and broad brush accusations on both sides of America, we are losing a huge part of national security. That being our willingness to stick together.

In our nations past there have been times when this sort of thing has cropped up. Spiraling in intensity until some event takes place to shift our attention back toward cohesion. In the 1930's it was the depression. In the 1850's and 60's it was the issue of slavery that ended in Civil War.

It would be wrong to think that our nations stability is granted to us from above. We have weathered crisis well, as we did in confronting the Depression. And we have weather crisis poorly, as in our ducking the issue of slavery until War came.

My advice is to stop listening to the right and left on the radio. They offer nothing but hatred, and fear.

Bushes other nickname

To the lovers of Bush he is, Bushy, Dubya, or to those who really know him Mephistopheles.

To other there is a word that matches the President in almost everyway. That word, his nickname, Charlatan.

"Charlatan" pron: Shar-le-ten

A person who makes elaborate, fraudulent, and often voluble claims to skill or knowledge;
A quack or fraud.
A person fraudulently claiming knowledge and skills not possessed.
A flamboyant deceiver; one who attracts customers with tricks or jokes

I say that this nickname is almost perfect because he is not flamboyent, nor does he tell jokes well. To add to his full nickname I have chosen other words that fit him and his crowd:

Reactionary:
Characterized by reaction, especially opposition to progress or liberalism; extremely conservative.

Know-nothing:
1. A totally ignorant person; an ignoramus.
2. An anti-intellectual.
3. An agnostic.
4. Know-Nothing A member of a political party in the United States during the 1850s that was antagonistic toward recent immigrants and Roman Catholics.

Fuax-Yokel:
A multimillionaire claming to be a rustic bumpkin.

Slime:
1. A thick sticky slippery substance.
2. Biology. A mucous substance secreted by certain animals, such as catfishes and slugs.
3. Soft moist earth; mud.
4. A slurry containing very fine particulate matter.
5. Vile or disgusting matter.
6. Slang. A despicable or repulsive person.

Hypocrite
one who puts on a mask and feigns himself to be what he is not; a dissembler in
religion. Our Lord severely rebuked the scribes and Pharisees for their
hypocrisy (Matt. 6:2, 5, 16). "The hypocrite's hope shall perish" (Job 8:13).
The Hebrew word here rendered "hypocrite" rather means the "godless" or
"profane," as it is rendered in Jer. 23:11, i.e., polluted with crimes.

So his grand nickname is: A Reactionary-charlatanistic-know-nothing-faux-yokel-slimey-hypocrite. Not a good name but whats in a name?

I make no claim to judge GW damned. Or indeed any human being. Since that judgement would be passed upon me. So I only point out the lousy Rep's stuff and the wastoid liberals stuff to get people to think. Not to assume either side condemed by God.

Sources:
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University

Review of Motorcycle Diaries

Che Guevara is more a graphic icon than anything elese, at least in the US. The movie trys to make him into a human being again. Well it does and it doesn't. The film never really clicks as a story of Ernesto's early years. The transformation he undergoes during the long gruling road trip is a bit too fake. However the performances are great and as a road trip movie this is one of the best. It shows us all sorts of parts of the South American world that we really haven't seen. It is a nice film too because it was made down south and does not try to sugar-coat things out of a sense of political correctness. If this movie had been made in the US it would have battles, and wars, and lots of mass killings; and of course all those things were taking place in 1950's South America. But this film is more adult than that. It takes forgranted that you are an intelligent person who does not need to be beat over the head with violece. You know it is there. You end up feeling good about both characters and want only the best for both at the end. This film left me wanting more of the story.

It gests a 6.5 for storyline and a 9 for roadtripage.

Well its just gone 9 o'clock and time for the penguin on top of your television set to explode.

Killing Communist Sims.

Yesterday I killed communist sims. I was part of a three man squad that infiltrated enemy territory and instead of talking and dancing with the Sims, we took them out with automatic weapons and grenades. For their part the Sims did not show any desire to put their bling on and boogie with us. They too were armed to the teeth. We got to know them by shooting them in the head.

I then went home and did some chores and then decided to play Sims. My main Sim, Zuul, has recently moved out of his parents home and into a trailer with his friend Dudley. Dudley is a pig and does not pick anything up. He eats a burger then drops the plate on the floor and tunes the radio to heavy metal. He has a grave yard shit job so he sleeps most of the day. He is also careless with the barbeque and sets the damn thing on fire along with the fence. He, being Dudley, does nothing but wines that there is a fire. Zuul has to wake up, for he too works nights, and in his pajamas, has to put the fire out. He dresses and eats some cereal. He hates his suroundings, he doesn't like Dudley. He craves stuff to do. He spend an hour taking the trash out and cleaning up after another Dudleyfest. Then, in a cranky mood, he goes to work as poison tester. To make matters worse he pisses his pants while walking to the bus to go to work. I cannot understand why a teenager would play this hell-game.

Zuul needs to quit his stupid job and join the special forces. Then he can become a member of an elite team, as he works toward the common goal of killing all the bad guys. To Zuul every Sim Communist is Dudley.

Well Done Good and Faithful Servant

So passes one of the giants of history. I did not live in the age of Julius Caesar, or Napoleon. I lived not in the age of Roosevelt or Ramsese. I lived in the age of John Paul II. A man who's life changed the world. I have trouble with some of what John Paul had to say. But on the whole I respect him as a man who was not a hypocrite. He provided a moral compass that was ever fixed upon Christ. He was a great Pope. He presided over the largest gathering of humans in recorded history when he said mass before 7 million people in the Phillipines. He prayed before the wailing wall in Jerusalem and there set in its wall of payer an apology for all the evils done to Jews by Christians. He presided over 3 million people in mass in Krakow, in defience of the dictatorship in Poland. He scolded priets in public that had taken up arms in centeral America. He lectured GW Bush on the imorality of the war in Iraq. He was unafraid of the pompus powers of the earth. He forgave his wouldbe muslim assasin then went to Moroco and spoke of spiritual unity before tens of thousands of Muslims. He sided with the Palestinians on their right to have their own country. He spoke of the dangers of dehumanising capitalism as well as faithless communism. His life will be judged by men and some will say he was a great man and some will say he was foolish. But the only judgement that really matters is Gods judgement. In that regard I have no worry that Karl Woyteja will be welcomed as a faithful servant.

Breaking News: Pundits sweating

The scenes of intense saddness on the faces of TV pundits all over the world comes as no surprise. The fact that the Pontif is still alive has utterly devasted them. Yet not all is in darkness. For there are many pundits who revel in the telling and retelling, and re-re-retelling, of the Holy Father's condition. Producers all over the world are deep in meditation over their productions of "John Paul: A life Remembered", "Way To Go Karl", and Micheal Moore's "The Pope That didn't care for Bush".

So all media men and women silently, and loudly, wait out the last few seconds, minutes, and potentially days or years of this Popes life.

The Vatican has banned TV pundits from the square at Saint Peters. "They make a hell of a mess." Said Msngr. Visconti, in charge of cleaning up after Papal Funerals. "Usually we simply let the Swiss Gaurd get some Pike practice pitching the SOB's over the wall. But tonight, seeing them all weepy at getting to cover this event, we decided to simply kick them in the teeth."

And so, with his front teef mithing, your faiful corithpondet signs off.

Challenging Times ahead for Church

Listeninig to the TV guys, salivating over the coverage of JP2's demise, is enough to make me want to move to the Isle of Sky and be a hermit. But that would be bad since I don't like the concept of being a hermit.

9am: Pope John Paul II is near death. His vital signs are fading.

10am: His organs are shutting down.

11am: The janitor is coming in to take out the trash and has turned the "Open" sign to the off position.

12pm: Pope is really really really not doing to well.

Breaking News: Thousands of TV Pundits make pilgrimage to Rome to take up position overlooking Saint Peter's Basillica. Make ready to comment on Popes death.

Breaking News: The parents and husband of Terry Shaivo, band together to fight the loss of media coverage due to the Popes final hours, file law suit against Catholic Church claiming the termination of media coverage of their problems is a violation of their right to bicker at each other on television.

Breaking wind: National Right to Life group really pissed that they were behind the curve on Pope's Death. Claim they couldn't get the appropriate goon squad to camp outside the Vatican to protest the Popes wishes not to have extreme life saving measures applied.

But seriously folks. Can the Catholic (Universal) Church survive in these challenging times? Well it survived the burning of Rome by the Visigoths, the collapse of the Roman Empire, six hundred years of the dark ages, multiple schisms as well as some really bad Popes and anti-popes. Somehow it has still remained strong and vital.

If the church was only a construct of man, for man, it would have collapsed long ago. It has a devine spark at it's core that allows it to continue. To say the Church is of man for man is to argue that 264 men have really been geniuses to keep the institution alive for 2000 years. Clearly the men who have held the office have not all been geniuses. So the church will continue on into the future adapting to the situation.